Guiding Faculty Equity Reform Strategies for Primarily Undergraduate Institutions from a Comparison of Administrator and Women STEM Faculty Perceptions

Systemic inequities in STEM have disproportionately impacted women faculty and have, overall, hindered their advancement through academic ranks. While these issues are well-documented in the literature for research-intensive universities, fewer studies have focused on primarily undergraduate institutions (PUIs). To understand priority areas for promoting faculty equity at PUIs, we collected survey data from administrators and faculty at institutions belonging to the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges (COPLAC), a consortium of 30 PUIs across the US and Canada, to study the prevalence and perceptions of equity- promoting policies and practices across the consortium. Results showed wide variation in the existence of equity-related policies and practices across institutions, as well as disagreement on the extent to which policies and practices had a positive impact. We used these differences to identify strategic areas for policy reform.